Not really. We will win the big ten. Bank on it. I had us losing to bama and ND. I mean realistically in the ND rivalry when have we dominated like this ? It's just like with state, they will lose this year against us. It's numbers and percentages. Not to mention maxwell is sweet.

Umm, you realize that we're talking about a football game that you weren't playing in, right? He broke your heart and soul? He played terribly in front of all of America. You got to watch from the safety of your living room. Its funny that people watch the game on TV and then either say "WE" when the team wins, but its "THEY" when the team loses. Calm down, sober up, for God's sake stop writing, and remember that this is only a fucking football game. However, if this is your idea of a heart and soul breaking event, you are a lucky bastard.

WTF else do you have?!?!?!? You're a corpsman in the Navy!!!! What you do every fucking day has more impact on peoples lives than any fucking football game! Honestly, ask yourself: Was this worse than Appy State (yeah, I'm bringing it up)? Is it worse than Toledo? This is a good football team that we should have smoked. It's going to hurt, but it doesn't even factor in the team's ultimate goal of a B1G Championship and a Rose Bowl.

About a weak B1G....we are part of the weakness...this.is a conference where anybody can win because we are all about the same....There is no guarantee we win the B1G, 11 other teams think the same thing.

I figured we'd lose to Bama (duh) and ND. We actually should have won against ND, and the B10 looks ores than I could have imagined, so no major changes yet. Have to beat MSU, and not lose both at Nebraska and at OSU. Though it is possible to lose both (many picked 8-4), win one and we have a pretty good chance at playing Purdue for the Roses.

Under the scenario with 2 conference losses for MSU and Nebraska, much depends on who pins thoses losses on them. If it is us, then yes, we've got a great shot. If not, then we're probably in tie-break jail.

Rose Bowl appearance is very realistic given how bad the conference is looking. Can't predict how we'll be playing at the end of the season though as far as the actual bowl game goes. And after seeing the Bama game you should realize that the game tonight could have gone much worse. We only lost by 7.

i seriously wonder why he isn't playing as our third down back instead of smith, unless he doesn't know the playbook fully yet..

I would think we could of at least used him on the play V smith threw the INT trying to get to the outside edge.. With Norfleet's speed and elusiveness i bet he could of got at least 5-7 yards on that play instead of throwing up a chance at a trick play..

Either way, if we get past Purdue in the conference opener i think we can still go 9-3.

Playing at Nebraska will be tough, but if our D can play like they did tonite, i don't see why we couldn't shut down Nebraska's O again this year, and we should stop MSU at home..

Worried more about NW, and some of the other teams.. still early to tell..

But i like the talent we have brought in with this last class.. lot of young players getting experience

smith is an AMAZING blocker, fantastic reciever and is faster than everybody gives him credit for. sure he is as fast as norfleet i assume (based only on norfleets kickoff returns) but he is a senior running back who knows how to play. you can't get all caught up in the superfast freshman because hes gonna make freshman mistakes especially blocking

I adjust to 10-2 and a win in the BTCG, meaning a trip to Pasadena. We should have beat ND and no one else in the B1G is good this year. In fact, most other teams in the B1G are terrible, not just not good. If we lose any other games this year, it'll be a big upset.

I don't think this game changes much of anything. The ND games usually have no bearing on how the rest of the season plays out. The Big Ten looks so apathetic right now that it's actually starting to look interesting in it's own twisted way. I think the division is ours to win, but nobody is paying attention to Nebraska it seems and that scares me a little bit.

Our offense has crashed and burned against the only 2 decent defenses we have played this year. Sorry, I don't see a B1G championship much less the Rose Bowl as a gimmie. MSU, OSU and NEB are still playing decent football and have defenses capable of giving Denard trouble. They aren't setting the world on fire, but they also aren't giving up 400yds to Air Force or giving the ball away 6 times in one game. I'm not saying it's impossible, but for me the ND, Alabama and to a lesser extent the AF game showed we are just too inconsistent on both sides of the ball right now to seriously start talking about a 0 or 1 loss conference performance.

Bama has given up a total of 21 points in 4 games, and 14 of them are from us. They are other-wordly. Against ND we put up over 300 yards - the only thing that killed us was turnovers. And although at this point it doesn't look like the picks are going to go away, let me be the first to say it's highly unlikely Denard throws 4 INTS on 4 consecutive throws again. The non-Denard ground game is a problem, and the OL looks a little shaky, but there's no reason to act like the sky is falling. As for giving up 400 yards to Air Force; news flash, they put up at least 300 on pretty much everyone they play. No, the defense did not look stellar that game but they looked more than competent tonight.

And I don't think anyone ever said the Rose Bowl is a gimmie (when has it ever?). The point is just that the Big Ten sucks, and all the rest of our games are clearly winnable - there's no reason people can't still be somewhat optimistic.

This game sucked but it was notas bleak as many people are making it out to be. Our offense did a reasonable job marching down the feild against an ND defense that MSU could do absolutely nothing against but was killed by turnovers in the red zone. Hell even if we are held to feild goals on all of those red zone trips we could have won.

Also I though our defense looked suprisingly good especially given the fact that we gave their offense so many une3xpected opprotuinities. I think this was probably the best defensive game we have had all year. Yes we lost but to a much improved ND team where we shot ourselves in the foot a lot.

Agree...lowered my expectations to 8-4. When you have a senior QB who has thrown for 6 TD's and had 8 INT's, you simply can't put too many games in the "give me" column. I think at this point, it is obvious for anyone with an open mind to realize that Denard is what he is...a player with an unusal skill set due to his running abilities, but a below par passing QB. Even with a miserable B1G this year, there is still a lot of talent on B1G defenses and there are no guarantees.

below par passing qb? seems like a bit harsh, sure today was bad but look at peyton manning last monday or like any game jay cutler ever plays (lolbears), people have bad games even good qbs have games where they throw a ton of picks. i dont know what you consider par but from you're tone i'm guessing you want some combination of brady/brees/jesus to play quarterback. Because in my book denard is a pretty above average college QB.

Tricky games ahead. MSU and OSU will be difficult because I think the UM offense will be much better than MSU but MSU's (only) strong point this year is their defense. So our better offense against their better defense, and our lesser defense against their lesser offense. I don't know how that one will turn out but I like that it's in AA. OSU looks a little tougher because they have a good D and a good offense. Hopefully we've built up a better, or at least more consistent attack by the end of the season and can make that one interesting as well.

I predict that we do very well in all future games in which we commit less than four turnovers. Hopefully that's all of them. Nobody else left in the schedule looks great. Everyone has a resume with losses and/or ugly wins against teams they should have dominated. I'm not saying we WILL win the rest of our games, but there's no reason to think of ourselves as underdogs against anyone left. Sparty? Looked much worse against Notre Dame than we did, let Eastern Freakin' Michigan hang around for three and a half quarters. Ohio State? Had their hands full with Alabama (not that Alabama) Birmingham and Cal. The Big Ten this year is a steaming turd and there's no reason why we can't be the kings of that turd.

Still, looking into the bright side, this will definitely give Denard something to digest as how to control his ball and give Gorges something to consider as well. Rose Bowl is still very much within reach.

could go anywhere from 8-0 winning the Big Ten Title game, to 1-7 with a lone win over Illinois.

Feels like every Big Ten game will be a battle like tonight where we should have a chance to win. Unfortunately that includes games like Northwestern/Minnesota/Iowa/Purdue games that shouldn't be close but probably will. Make too many mistakes and we lose, protect the ball we win.

Also it wouldn't hurt if our D created a fumble or two between now and late November. K-thanks

We have 6 turnovers against ND and lost by a touchdown. I don't see any way we lose to any of Illinois, Iowa or Minnesota. Those are bad, bad football teams. Purdue is a much better team and shouldn't be lumped in that group.

Why would this game change any expectations? After the bama game i think we came back to earth a little and this game was really meaningless in the big picture. We can still win the BIG championship. Who impressed this week minnesota beating cuse, MSU sqeaking by a terrible EMU team, or Iowa choking late in the game and the Illini getting blown out by louisiana fucking tech We dont play Wisconsin or PSU (who by the way is looking best in the leaders thus far) We can beat nw, illinois, minnesota, purdue, iowa. Getting a win agianst nebraska or MSU and then beating OHIO puts us at 7-1 maybe 6-2. I think that gives us the division chamionship Still a long way but my expectaitons havent changed one bit after this game!!

To answer the OP's question, I don't think you adjust expectations just yet based on the results of the OOC schedule. Just based on many discussions that took place here in August, an estimate of 2-2 in the OOC schedule should probably not shock anyone now as it turns out to be dead on.

Having now seen the games, of course, we note that Alabama is simply on a different plane and we are still responsible for the lion's share of the offense allowed by them to date this season. I'll take that.

Air Force and UMass were almost universally chalked up as wins, and we handled business against an unorthodox offense and a baby seal. Again, I'll take that.

Notre Dame was definitely winnable, but turnovers in the red zone killed it (if we get two of those throws back, it's a different game perhaps - in all other respects, we were competitive in this game), but again, it was going to be tough anyway, and if you want a bright spot, the defense kept that game in control - we lost by one score, so no, despite what people said in the liveblog, it's definitely 2012. Based on historic numbers, that turnover margin in one game is an aberration, an outlier, and it is unlikely that it happens again, so take comfort in that.

The way that several of the folks in our conference schedule have played, looking at their stats, a cumulative record 9-3 is still definitely within the realm of possibilities. The Big Ten really is up for grabs right now, both divisions are wide open. Two of the teams that perhaps people would have said "lean loss" to in August - MSU and Ohio - look very beatable now, and Nebraska at home will be tough but if we can muster the same rushing performance as last night sans turnovers, their inability to do stop UCLA (whom I think we're better than, especially on defense) on the ground a couple weeks ago may be telling.

No - mine are the same this morning as they were before the season started. I expected, given our brutal road schedule, we'd lose 3 out of 4 of the "big games" and so far we're 0-2. I expected, given our relatively soft home schedule we'd run the table and so far we're 2-0.

To put things in a bit of perspective in 1988 we started 0-2 losing to (you guessed it) Notre Dame on the road and then a complete heartbreaker to Miami (YTM) at home. And then we went undefeated the rest of the season (had a tie at Iowa), won the Rose Bowl and finished ranked 4th in the country. Can anybody look at our remaining games and honestly say "that one's unwinnable?" Beating both Nebraska and OSU on the read will be a challenge but not an insurmountable one.

In the words of the imortal JLS....."Smile". We lost a game guys where our best player had the worst game of his life and we still had a shot to win at the end.

My problem is with this coaching staff just having the expectation of winning the BIG. It is like we are entering the Carr years all over again. Personally I hated the fact that we went 9-3 what seemed like almost every year. Yes he won a national championship, but he also underachieved with the same attitude of lets just win the BIG. Do you suppose Alabama has a goal of just winning the SEC every year? That used to be Bo's goal, college football has changed I really do like coach Hoke, but for god sakes put on a set of head phones and set your goals higher. His coaching style scares me and makes me think that the Carr years are returning.

So are you suggesting that by having the goal to win the B1G they somehow don't want to win the out of conference games as much? I cant imagine them trying any harder then they did to beat Alabama (vastly superior team) and ND (our best player had his worst game....it happens). If we did something that made you think we were holding back some super-secret weapon to unleash it on the unsuspecting B1G then by all means share cause I'd love to know what that might be.

And I'm not sure how wearing headsets correlates into higher goal setting. Does the lack of communication with the assistants during playcalls denote lack of goals? I read it as confidence in their abilities and his desire to connect with the players and not be "in a bubble" so to speak.

I have a hard time believing Hoke doesn't want to win national titles. I agree in that it's a bit of an old-school approach to college football, but I guarantee Hoke wants to beat the likes of Alabama and Notre Dame just as bad as he wants to beat Purdue or Nebraska.

I don't need to adjust my expectations because we are exactly where I thought we'd be. (I do need to adjust my expectations about how ugly it would look getting there.)

I thought we would lose to Alabama and ND, although a little more aesthetically. I also think we beat State but lose to one of Nebraska/OSU. We also lose, unfortuantely, to a middle of the pack team that we shouldn't lose to. It is still enough to get to the B1G Championship Game.

The Nebraska game looks scary . . . another hyped-up night game in an intimidating setting against a proud opponent looking for redemption, where Denard has all day to sit around and get overly geeked up. Not our best moment.

I still sit at 7-5.....The Denard/Borges combo scares me greatly. It helped a lot last year with thge D creating TO's at a possible abnormal rate.

If those TO's aren't being created we have to be that much better on offense and with the oil/water combo our OC/QB have it might be a long up and down frustrating season with us leaving a lot of points on the field.

They are kids, and will probably lose one more game they shouldn't. But that being said, we should be the better team on the field in the rest of our games, or at the very least... competitive in every game.

Michigan could run the table in the B1G and finish 10-2 again. However, we will probably have more mistake filled games. As a realist, I'm sticking with my original projection of 8-4 with two conference losses. Worse case will be 6-6 or 7-5!

I was at 8-4 with losses to Alabama, ND, Nebraska, and OSU. I think 6-6 is just as likely as 10-2.

One note of patience: in 1969 after 5 games we were 3-2, with a blowout loss to Missouri 40-17 (at home, no less), and an unimpressive loss to MSU at EL, 23-12. At that point in the season, not very many people were thinking we'd be undefeated the rest of the way with a convincing win over the alleged best college team of all time.

My answer: This team is better than what i thought we would be. I figured 2-2 with losses to who we lost to, but expected ND to own us, and we actually outplayed them outside of a few plays. This team is better than i thought they would be.

We are no worse than the 2nd best team in the Big Ten. I thought we would be the 4th best team in the Big Ten this year.

I am an OSU fan from TX, and enjoyed talking football with a lot of great UM fans a few weeks ago for the Labor Day kick off game.

I am really stunned at how weak OSU's defense has become - and am equally stunned at the production decline from UM.

Look, no one is going to beat Alabama; however, the performance of our two teams and the B1G overall is really hard to analyze. OSU is struggling with weak teams and cannot stop anyone. Their D was solid for a decade and I don't get Fickell and Vrabell and their scheme.

UM is in transition to the style of offense I think OSU should stick with (Bo: FB, TE in a 3-pt stance ...) and I get that; however, Denard is Denard, and he is not being put in positions to make him as multi-dimensional as he should be.

Both OSU and UM have good recruiting classes and the future should - should - be bright. But right now, Hoke and Meyer as solid as they are, I don't see the B1G competing with the SEC. Shane Morris is going to be solid, and UM is going to be good. OSU will be good. I just don't see the two schools or the B1G winning the NC until Saban retires.

I think UM and OSU will be competitive for the next decade in the B1G. Don't see a NC unless something drastic happens like changes to oversigning. The economy is not coming back in a big way ever again to the MidWest, and the recruiting bases will have to compete in the South and the West and those 5* players will stay home and we can plan on developing 4* talent and playing our asses off. It is a different decade ...

Which brings me back to my opening line - having grown up in the NE/ MW/ B1G country and having lived in TX since the 90's, there is a solid population shift, and the base for our two schools is shifting and that will make it tough to win the NC. Being competitive is one thing - playing for a legitimate NC title is something else...